Publisher's Summary

Adam Kingston expects to inherit his father’s multinational conglomerate. When he finds out half of it went to Nate Thomas - an annoying man whose dreams for Kingston Corp.’s future clash with Adam’s need to stave off financial disaster - Adam is furious. He’s willing to do whatever it takes to wrest control of Kingston Corp. from Nate.
Nate may be soft-spoken, but he refuses to be swayed by Adam’s arrogant demands. When Nate accidentally drops a pair of his lacy panties in front of Adam, there’s no mistaking Adam’s interest. Nate hadn’t realized Adam was bisexual, but now that his secret is out, Nate is willing to use Adam’s lust against him if it means protecting the welfare of the company he loves.
For Adam and Nate, hatred and desire are closely linked. Their inability to compromise threatens the company and could expose their tightly held secrets. But as they work together to develop a plan to save Kingston Corp., they begin to realize there might be more to their relationship than anger and lust.

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Customer Reviews

Decent story/fine performance from great narrator

3.5

In one corner of this enemies-to-lovers story you have the heir-apparent and self-proclaimed spoiled genius, Adam Kingston and in the other Adam’s father’s business protégé and the “tree hugging hippy” environmental department head, Nate Thomas. While their relationship has been filled with antagonism since Nate joined the company, upon learning his father left half of the company’s ownership to Nate, Adam is infuriated by this apparent last f-you and goes out of his way to challenge, insult and antagonize Nate.

Adam is spoiled, uncompromising and underneath his impeccable suits and arrogant demeanor, rather a hot mess. His control issues, dislike of feeling vulnerable and the panic attacks he has suffered from since learning of his father’s illness tend to make him unreasonable when dealing with others and he either lashes out or runs when he begins to feel more than just dislike and lust towards Nate. Although one good thing about Adam is his self-awareness, it doesn’t do him much good and highlights just how often he goes out of his way to be a jerk. For example, early on he acknowledges that he doesn’t have the business acumen and people skills to be CEO of the company and really only wants to work in his lab and his research department, yet until 70% in, he refuses to do what needs to be done, and then mostly does it as a peace-offering to Nate. However, this constant awareness of his shortcomings and the many ways in which he shoots himself in the foot keeps him from being completely unlikeable and illustrates how difficult it is for his character to be better at compromise.

For me, one of the main hiccups the story has is that the only thing the MCs seem to have in common is hot sex and love for the company. The story is told from Adam’s POV and there aren’t many personal conversations between him and Nate to offer any real background or personality development to Nate’s character. Nate isn’t completely flat or one-dimensional, I just would have liked to know more about him. This lack of a sense of who Nate is and the relative speed in which they transitioned from this is more than sex to I-love-yous seemed a bit rushed. The only relationship with some discernable emotional depth to it is Adam’s relationship with his best friend Val. I loved her, and their interactions did the most to humanize him; frankly, Val was the main reason Adam was remotely likeable and kept him from seeming like a completely entitled nozzle.

Additionally, to me Adam’s panic attacks felt more like a tool to make him sympathetic than a developed part of the character. The amount of control Adam has over them and the instances where even though he’s written to be mid-attack but Nate’s touch suddenly stops seemed contrived. For instance, in one case Adam’s said to be in the midst of a panic attack but has an inner rational conversation with himself and decides to make Nate angry because he doesn’t like his indifference and no more mention is made of the attack. For most people, this probably isn’t a big deal, but the attacks were integral to how he related to Nate so it’s important to make them feel more genuine in the story.

In regards to the narration, as a fan of audiobooks and having listened to many performances by Nick J. Russo, this one wasn’t one of his best. Outside of scenes with extreme emotions, the voice work came across a bit flat. I was also interested/puzzled by his choice for Nate’s voice. The story takes place in Chicago, and while there is nothing that says Nate isn’t originally from California, it was just really noticeable that the character described as a hippy gets a stereotypical, California/surfer-dude bro voice. Even though not his best work IMO, Russo’s not best is many narrators’ great, and if you enjoy his narration, like a story with MCs who can’t help being smug a-holes to each other, who lock horns and bury their raging lust in raging corporate arguments until it explodes into hot sex, then you’ll find plenty to like in “Lace-Covered Compromise”.

Lacy and racy!

Adam just lost his father and finds out he left half the company to Nate. Nate isn't even a relation.
Nate and Adam do not get along well at all. They are very much the epidemy of opposites. One day Adam storms into Nate's office and finds Nate as a little secret that turns Adam on more than he thought it should. The more he is around Nate the more attracted, but he wants his company. The board says they must present a compromise.

This story was a lot of fun to read. I loved the unique character of Nate. he is smart, office-oriented but has his secret.
Adam is a bit of a butt but he is a redeemable one.
I love enemies to lovers and redeemable characters so this story was right up my alley. Add in Nate's little fetish that heated things up and the story was amazing.

I listened to the audio version and Nate J Russo to it to another level with his voice for each character and all the emotions. He adds sighs and moans in just the right places.